


Interval

by TardisIsTheOnlyWayToTravel



Series: Loki, Lilo & Stitch [2]
Category: Lilo & Stitch (2002), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (2011)
Genre: Family, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-13
Updated: 2014-09-13
Packaged: 2018-02-17 05:00:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2297441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TardisIsTheOnlyWayToTravel/pseuds/TardisIsTheOnlyWayToTravel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Loki starts to settle in.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Interval

**Interval**

Loki had been afforded the guest bedroom, and he lay there, staring at the ceiling, unable to get to sleep. Nani had lent him some sleeping clothes belonging to someone named David (Loki had drawn his own conclusions about their relationship), and they were comfortable enough, while the bed sheets were soft and clean. But Loki’s mind was in turmoil over the events of the past few days, and he simply couldn’t settle down enough to get to sleep. He kept reliving the worst parts of the last few days over and over in his mind, unable to help himself.

It was with relief that he noticed the sound of light footsteps in the hallway, and stiffened, wondering if perhaps the house was being visited by a burglar. But two small shapes slipped through the shadows outside his door, and Loki realised that there was no thief – only a small child who should have been in bed, and her small alien companion.

Loki sat up and folded back the sheets and blankets, and swung his legs out of bed. He walked down the hallway and down the central staircase, careful to kept his footsteps silent, and walked into the living room.

Two face swung to look at him with varying degrees of guilt, strange lights playing over their faces from the screen of the television, which was playing at a very low volume.

Loki glanced at the television. On-screen, a monster was destroying a large city, as people screamed and fled.

“We’re watching _Godzilla_ ,” Lilo stage-whispered. “Do you want to join us?”

Stitch had turned away from Loki, and was back to watching the television with an air of intent eagerness. It was clear that he was enjoying the… film?.... that was playing.

“Are you sure you should be watching this at this time of night?” Loki asked, pitching his voice low so as not to wake anyone upstairs.

Lilo and Stitch exchanged looks. Stitch shrugged at Lilo, as though to say that it was up to her to handle the situation. Lilo looked back at Loki.

“Stitch likes to watch the monster movies,” Lilo explained. “Jumba says it satisfies his need for destruction. But they only show them after everyone’s gone to bed. You’re not going to tell, are you?”

Loki summoned up a smile. It was surprisingly easy.

“Who am I to stop a bit of harmless mischief?” he asked, and Lilo grinned at him.

“Come, sit with us,” Lilo said, patting the seat of the couch next to her.

So Loki joined the duo on the couch, and spent the next hour or so watching _Godzilla_. After a while, he glanced at Lilo, to find her fast asleep. Stitch was watching him.

“Should I carry her to bed, do you think?” Loki whispered. Stitch continued staring at him, but after a moment, gave a short nod of the head.

So Loki gathered Lilo into his arms, careful not to wake her, and carried her upstairs. He could hear the scratch of Stitch’s claws on the wooden floor behind him, and sure enough, as Loki set Lilo down in her bed, Stitch reappeared beside him. Before Loki could, Stitch pulled up the bed covers, tenderly tucking Lilo in. Then he walked around to the other side of the bed, and slipped under the covers himself.

Enormous black eyes looked at Loki, glinting in the moonlight, and Loki inclined his head, and returned to the guest bedroom.

This time, when he tried to get to sleep, his mind was calm enough that he drifted off almost immediately.

* * *

Over the next week or so, Loki began to adjust to his new surroundings. He had known, of course, that Midgard was very different from Asgard, and had visited a few times, but carefully planned visits were different from actually _living_ on Midgard, as he was discovering.

Within the first few days Nani took Loki shopping for new clothes, so that David didn’t have to keep lending him his. David didn’t seem to mind all that much, but Loki was both taller and thinner than David was, and David’s clothes didn’t fit him particularly well.

All of the clothes that Nani recommended seemed to be either colourful shirts, or shorts, none of which suited Loki’s dignity. But he was a stranger here, so he conceded that it would be best to blend in and wear what everyone else was wearing, however little he liked it.

Lilo and Stitch came along for the shopping trip as well.

“You should wear this one,” Lilo declared, holding up a pink shirt decorated with large purple flowers. Loki stared at it in horror. Before he could protest, Lilo stood on tiptoe and placed the shirt in Nani’s carry-basket.

Loki silently resolved never, ever to wear the pink-and-purple shirt.

A few minutes later and Lilo was back, this time with a shirt decorated with flowers in multiple colours. It was garish, but at least a step up from the pink-and-purple shirt.

“Do they have anything in green?” Loki asked helplessly.

“Ooh! Here’s some green,” Lilo said helpfully, tugging on a rack of green shorts.

“Lilo! Stop that!” said Nani. She grabbed several pairs of shorts off the rack and put them in her basket. Stitch cackled, and started climbing the rack.

By the time they were done shopping, Nani was rather frazzled, and Loki had a collection of new clothes.

Back at the house, Loki watched as Nani showed him how to use the clothes washing machine, then attempted to follow her instructions. All seemed to go well, so Loki left the machine to wash his new clothes – the remainder of them separated into matching colours on the laundry floor – and went to find the others.

Lilo and Stitch were in the kitchen with Pleakley, telling the being all about their shopping trip.

Loki still hadn’t determined whether Pleakley was male, or female, but it seemed impolite to ask.

“Oh! Hello,” said Pleakley as they noticed him, looking flustered. “So Nani took you shopping, did she?”

“She did indeed,” Loki confirmed.

“We bought him some new clothes,” Lilo said. “I helped.”

“And Stitch?” Pleakley asked, eying Stitch knowingly.

“Stitch climbed the clothing racks until one of them fell over,” said Loki.

Pleakley nodded, as though this was about what they had expected.

“Well, it’s Stitch,” they said, as though that explained everything. Stitch muttered something uncomplimentary under his breath. Loki’s lips twitched.

“I’m going to put some Elvis on,” Lilo announced, sliding off her chair.

“Elvis?” Loki inquired. Lilo and Stitch looked shocked.

“You don’t know _Elvis_?” Lilo’s voice was hushed. “This situation must be rectified. Come with me.”

Stitch grabbed Loki’s hand in an iron grip and dragged him after Lilo. Loki went along with it, wondering what was going on.

Lilo was in the living room, and as Loki watched, she placed a flat black disc covered in circular lines on top of a square device, and lowered the arm of the device until the needle at its tip was touching the record player.

A moment later, music began to play, and a deep voice emerged from the device, singing along with the music.

“This is Elvis,” Lilo explained reverently. “He’s the king of music. I’m sure you’ll like him.”

“With that sort of recommendation, how could I not?” Loki asked, listening curiously to the music. It was unlike anything he’d ever heard on Asgard, but the fast beat and energetic style was strangely catchy.

As he watched, Lilo and Stitch started to dance, easily falling into synchronised dance moves as though they had done this hundreds of times before.

“Dance with us!” Lilo urged.

Part of Loki insisted that he would look ridiculous, but the rest of him pointed out that there was no one here to judge him, and it looked like fun, so why not? Grinning a little, Loki stepped forward and joined Lilo and Stitch.

The moves were a little difficult to follow at first, but fairly soon Loki got the hang of it.

“You’re a great dancer,” Lilo said admiringly, and Loki laughed, shocking himself. His surprised look sent both Lilo and Stitch into giggles. Unable to help smiling, Loki continued dancing with the strange pair.

Some time later their dancing was interrupted by the sound of the front door shutting, and a voice calling out, “Nani, Lilo, you home?”

“David!” Lilo squealed, and she ran for the front hallway, Stitch scampering along behind.

Loki followed at a more sedate pace.

“Hey, Loki,” David greeted him. “You watching these guys, huh?”

“He wasn’t _watching_ us,” Lilo huffed. “Me and Stitch were teaching him about _Elvis_.”

“Oh?” David asked, with a smile. “How’d that go?”

“Loki’s a really good dancer,” Lilo informed him.

“Oh yeah?” David glanced at Loki with a good-natured grin. “They have dance classes down at the community centre if you’re interested, you know.”

Loki blinked.

“Perhaps,” was all he said.

“Lilo, why don’t you find Nani and tell her I’m here,” David suggested.

“Okay!” Lilo agreed with a big smile, and ran off. Stitch followed her.

David looked at Loki.

“So how you settling in, eh?” he asked. Loki gave a small shrug.

“Adequately,” he replied.

“Nani said she was going to take you shopping for some clothes today. That go okay?” David asked.

“Well enough,” Loki agreed. “Although Lilo insisted on the most hideous shirt I have ever seen.”

David snorted, and tried to hide his laughter.

“Well, you know,” he said. “She’s a kid. They don’t always have the best taste.”

At this point Nani came downstairs to greet David, and Loki slipped away. He went outside and sat on the porch, looking out at the clear blue sky – so much brighter than on Asgard – and thought about the last few days.

It was strange here, and Loki was still haunted by everything that had happened, but no one here had any expectations of him. No one believed that he would behave a certain way, simply because of who he was, or suspected him of malice when he was doing his best to be well-behaved. It was… liberating.

Even Stitch, Loki mused, who seemed to be a force of chaos all of his own, was accepted and welcomed here. Not by the shopkeepers, perhaps – Loki grinned to himself at the memory of the scene in the shop after Stitch had knocked over the clothing rack – but by those who knew him well.

Even at home – Asgard, Loki corrected himself, for surely after all he had done, it was his home no more – among those he counted friends and family, Loki had never experienced that same acceptance. His friends were more Thor’s friends, really, inclined to always take his part over Loki’s, and as for his parents… well. They weren’t even really his parents, were they?

Perhaps, after all, Loki was better off where he was.

On that thought, Loki sighed sadly to himself.

Behind him he heard the door open and shut, and looked around just as Lilo joined him on the porch.

“Hello,” Lilo greeted him.

“Hello yourself,” Loki returned.

“You look sad,” said Lilo earnestly. “Are you okay?”

Loki gave her an unhappy smile.

“Just thinking.”

“About what?” Lilo asked. Loki looked out at the view below them instead of meeting Lilo’s eyes.

“Various things,” he murmured.

“You can tell me, if you want to,” said Lilo. “You’re living with us now, so that makes you _ohana_.” The Allspeak translated the last word as ‘family.’

“I don’t think it works that way,” said Loki.

“Yes it does,” Lilo said stubbornly, “because _ohana_ means family, and family means no one is ever left behind or forgotten.”

Loki felt his throat close up and his eyes prickle.

“That’s…” he began, but couldn’t say any more. Lilo climbed on his lap and gave him a hug.

“Did you have a family where you came from?” she asked, after a moment.

“I thought I did,” Loki whispered. “But it turns out, they were never really my family. Never my _ohana_ , as you put it.”

“I’m sorry.” Lilo looked up at Loki with sympathetic eyes. “But maybe we could be your _ohana_ , now. Then you won’t have to be sad anymore.”

Loki managed a smile.

“That’s very kind of you, but I’m not sure it would be for the best. Perhaps we could be friends, instead?”

“Friends,” Lilo agreed, and gave Loki another hug. Loki wiped surreptitiously at his eyes. Lilo pretended not to notice.

“You should come inside,” Lilo told him. “Pleakley’s making hot chocolate.”

“Well, I certainly can’t miss that,” said Loki, rising to his feet with Lilo in his arms. “Shall we join Pleakley, then?”

“We shall,” Lilo agreed grandly.

Loki walked inside, carrying Lilo, and feeling a little better.

Yes, he thought. He was almost certainly better off here, than in Asgard.

 

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
